Justin Broady

Church planting is in Justin Broady’s blood.

He spent his childhood in the church. His grandfather was a pastor and church planter, and his parents were always deeply involved. 

Justin’s story takes a turn when he was 10 years old and his whole world turned upside-down. After his parents divorced, the always-good-church-kid rebelled and became consumed with things of the world—popularity, hedonism, sports, parties. 

While attending Texas A&M in Galveston, it grew to a climax as his alcohol addiction led to drugs and other addictions. At 22, he spiraled into a deep depression and felt like he had nothing left.

At that very low place of being, God intervened. A friend of Justin’s shared the Gospel with him and invited him to pray. 

For the first time in his life, Justin realized he needed God’s help and was overwhelmed by the weight of his sin. At that same moment, he was even more overwhelmed by God’s grace and how much he loved Justin.

God saved Justin that day and completely changed the trajectory of his life.

With help from his grandparents, he quickly got plugged into a church and jumped into leading a recovery ministry. In a relatively short time, Justin went from a place of addiction and despair to preaching the Gospel and praying with others the same way his friend had prayed with him.

It was during this season that Justin was reading through the Bible for the first time in his life. He got to the place in 2 Timothy where Paul talks about how Timothy’s faith was given down to him by his grandmother. God spoke to Justin through this and revealed how he had gotten his faith from his grandfather.

In that moment, Justin felt a very clear call from the Lord to do what his grandfather did — plant churches.

But… he wasn’t ready to hear that quite yet. He rebelled and pushed the message aside. He thought “that’s not for me, I’m not qualified enough.”

So,  Justin carried on with his life. He got married and started a family. He went into business and launched a successful recruiting company… all the while knowing, in the bottom of his heart, what God had really called him to.

In 2018, Justin and his wife Cherish had a strong sense that the Lord was about to do something big. This “something big” turned out to be his business collapsing out of nowhere. He lost clients. He lost employees. He lost a big part of his identity. 

Wrecked and desperate, Justin called out to the Lord for help.

The answer to his plea came in the form of an invitation to speak at a Lakepointe event in Mesquite. At the event, a friend and pastor from Casa View Baptist Church in Garland approached Justin and invited him to join their staff as an associate pastor. After much prayer. Justin took the leap of faith and jumped from the corporate world to the world of full-time ministry.

During his two years at Casa View, Justin felt the Lord reminding him what He had originally called Justin to all those years ago. 

The call intensified, growing stronger and stronger, until one night the Lord woke him up in the middle of the night, asking, “What’s the one thing I asked you to do?”

At that point, Justin knew he couldn’t run from it anymore. He felt that, “I need to obey this or I might as well die.” The call was overwhelming and even a little terrifying. Both he and Cherish didn’t know what the next step was, but they trusted in the Lord and made themselves available to His direction.

Justin got in touch with his gym buddy, Crosspoint Pastor Ryan Lewis, who he knew had planted a church and was connected with Acts 29. Pastor Ryan invited Justin and his family to come visit Crosspoint and see what the Lord had to say.

Justin recalled, “The very first time we came to visit Crosspoint, the scripture reading that day was the exact passage that my wife and I had been praying over our future plans. We had this immediate sense that the Lord was guiding us here and to this church.”

Under counsel from our elders and a strong leading from the Lord, the Broadys made the decision to leave Casa View (pastoral position and all) and come to Crosspoint to sit under leadership at our church. 

Pastor Ryan encouraged Justin to meet with the director of the Church Planting Residency Program at The Village Church in Flower Mound to discuss plans and vision for a future church plant. Though the program is small and selective, Justin was invited into this 18-month program and is currently a full-time resident at The Village.

God made a way.

With their future church plant, the Broadys are partnering with both The Village and Crosspoint to make it happen.

Justin’s residency at The Village consists of being equipped in biblical exposition; church planting; and pastoral leadership and competencies. He gets to see first-hand how staff meetings are led; how vision is cast; how employees are developed; how the congregation is shepherded. As part of the program, his family is visiting a lot of different churches in different contexts.

At Crosspoint, the Broadys jumped in as full-fledged members of our body. They are currently leading a community group, serving on Sundays, and learning as much as they can from the leadership at our church. When the time comes, we will send them out.

Justin said, “Crosspoint seems to us a healthy, well-led, well-nourished church… and that is something to be celebrated! We want to learn as much as we can while we’re here — to take advice, take correction, take encouragement — so that we’re well-equipped to be sent in 18 to 24 months to wherever God calls us to go.”

As far as what their vision looks like for a future church, Justin said that they are seeking a place with a recovery need. Both he and Cherish have a background in recovery ministry as well as hearts to connect in an area with a lot of unchurched or de-churched people.

God has placed a desire to create a space where it’s okay to not be okay; a safe place to ask questions and have hard, honest conversations.

The Broadys are hoping to identify a church plant location soon. Justin said the Lord placed three areas on their hearts (Florida, Vancouver, and Colorado Springs) — since then, they’ve felt clear guidance away from two of those locations (Florida and Vancouver) and are heading to Colorado Springs this week (October 7 - 9) to see if maybe that’s the place the Lord has for them.

While they are there, they will meet with several people and pastors and cover the city in prayer.

Rapidly growing, Colorado Springs is one of the most de-churched areas in the country (83-percent of the population does not go to church). While there are two Acts29 churches in the city, there are none in the north, where people have been suggesting that they plant, and both churches are Presbyterian with very different DNA than the church the Broadys would be planting (more similar to Crosspoint/The Village).

As partners with the Broady family, we ask our body to commit to lifting them up in prayer throughout the next two years as they prepare to plant.

There are a few specific ways you can pray and help right now...

Pray over Justin and Cherish’s trip to Colorado Springs. They will be there tomorrow through Saturday (Oct. 7 - 9). Pray for Spirit’s guidance as they meet with leaders there and as they engage with the city. Pray for the Lord’s blessing over Colorado Springs and that His name be known there! Pray for a clear “yes” or “no” for both Justin and Cherish as to whether CO Springs is the place for them.

Pray for and consider supporting the Broady family financially.  During his residency, Justin is not bringing in any sort of income and will need to fundraise the entirety of the church plant. Pray for the Lord’s continued provision over their family during this season and for Him to provide in abundance toward the church plant!

If you feel led to support the Lord’s work through the Broady family, Justin has a donation page set up at reliant.org/justin.broady. There, you can make a one-time donation or set up recurring donations that go directly toward the church plant.